So, I finished A Game of Thrones. Although this is a pointless recommendation as everyone except me has already read it I still recommend it! I don’t think that I will break into the next in the series just quite yet, but I will definitely be returning to it.

After A Game of Thrones I started on a book I bought on a whim: Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead. He may only have one R for a middle name (as opposed to George R. R.) but that doesn’t seem to stop him from writing some good stuff. Hood, which I have just found out is the first of a trilogy, is a retelling of the legend of Robin Hood.

Based upon the premise that Robin was Welsh and lived at the time of the Norman conquest of England with Norman eyes now falling on Welsh territory the book paints Robin as a wayward son of a Welsh king. After the obligatory death of his father and nearly everyone he knows Robin now has the motivation to spring into action. Since the legends of Robin Hood, and the characters involved in it, are so well known the book comes with a natural foreshadowing that provides an enjoyable meta narrative to the book. You know the general shape of the story but you don’t know what take on it Lawhead will provide.

I’m just under half way through Hood and so far, so good.